Balanced 76ers scorch Suns

Feb 10, 2009 - 5:03 AM
PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Thaddeus Young, Andre Iguodala and
Marreese Speights each scored over 20 points to lead the
Philadelphia 76ers to a 108-91 victory over the Phoenix Suns on
Monday.

Young scored 14 of his 25 points in the first quarter as
Philadelphia opened up a 30-25 lead. Speights had a big second
quarter, scoring 12 straight points for the 76ers just before
the break as they opened up a 55-44 lead at the half.

A rookie out of Florida, Speights finished with a season-high 24
points off the bench.

"They just gave me the ball so I had to make the best of it,"
Speights said. "They were throwing lobs and I was catching it. I
was simply working hard. This is giving me confidence from my
teammates and my coaches. I just keep working had and good
things happen."

Iguodala scored 22 points for the 76ers, who improved to 4-2 on
their season-high seven-game home stretch. With the win,
Philadelphia (26-24) also moved two games over .500 for the
first time this season.

Amare Stoudemire scored 19 points for Phoenix, which is 1-1 on
its three-game trip against Eastern Conference opponents. The
Suns were coming off a 107-97 victory over Detroit on Sunday.

"We're trying to build some momentum," Philadelphia coach Tony
DiLeo said. "We knew that they played last night, so we wanted
to come out and run and hopefully wear them down and I think
that we did a good job of that. We had three players score 20
points and we are of course happy with the win."

Speights had 16 at the half, just a point short of his
season-high. Philadelphia led, 80-66, entering the fourth and
then Speights helped finish off the Suns.

He made a layup and then added a jumper from 16 feet to make it
84-71 with just under 10 minutes to play.

"We want to establish ourselves at home. This is our house and
we want to protect it," Young said. "We've been doing a very
good job of going out there getting wins and finishing out
games. Tonight, we put the hammer on the nail."

Lou Williams added 11 points off the bench for Philadelphia,
which has won three straight. He hit a 3-pointer in the fourth
to make it 93-75 and garbage time soon followed with reserves
playing nearly half the final quarter.

"Our team is so unselfish," DiLeo said. "Marreese Speights was
hot tonight, the other night it was Willie Green If somebody get
it going, we try to get them some more plays for them to get
shots. Thad (Young) and Marreese tonight were really going
pretty good and we tried to get them opportunities."

Jason Richardson had 16 points and Shaquille O'Neal had seven
and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Suns, who had to try and get by
on an off night for Steve Nash.

Nash had eight assists and three turnovers and scored only two
points on 1-of-8 shooting. Grant Hill only had six points
giving the Suns only 15 points from a trio of starters - Hill,
Nash and O'Neal.

"I think that our energy tonight is what got us down,"
Stoudemire said. "For the most part we played decent. Sometimes
it's just tough getting those wins on a back-to-back."